Change Of Heart
by Peridotcat
Summary: This is a one-shot, first fiction by a new author. Half demon Inuyasha learns things the hard way. Inuyasha gets a harsh lesson when he must save himself and his friends but it will cost him. Can he save everyone and what price will he be called on to


**CHANGE OF HEART**

"Achoo! Achoo! Achoo! K-a-g-o-m-e, I don't feel good", whined Shippou. Kagome hugged Shippou then sneezed herself breathless too.

"Criminy! Will you two shut up!" yelled a frustrated hanyou, "its hard enough following the trail without all that noise!"

Whiteout blinded him and wind confounded both hearing and smell; he knew this territory, or he had fifty years ago. He hoped Miroku with Sango escaped on Kirara flying safely away from the sudden mountain storm. He only wished Kagome and Shippou were out of danger. Traipsing after a jewel shard into the mountains, only to have the jewel vanish along with its human carrier down a mine shaft irritated the hell out of him. Now this storm. Gods. He leaped into the air again.

"Pant. Pant. Gaaasspp…" Inuyasha leaned over, struggling for breath in freezing thin mountain air. Even arrogant half-demons had their limits. As the hours passed, each flying leap grew shorter and his running steps slower as the fierce cold ate him from the skin to his bones. Inuyasha straightened as much as he could, dragged in a labored breath and sprang into the air.

The weight on his back pushed him toward the earth. Inuyasha landed hard, stumbled then fell flat in a snowdrift. Shaking, the young dog demon forced himself to his feet. A soft moan drifted on the wind into his sensitive ears. Kagome. The girl, semi-conscious, rode on his back tied on at wrists and ankles after a fall. She faded in and out of consciousness. Shippou secure within her jacket was utterly silent and still.

Inuyasha pressed his strained senses to find the old hut he remembered. It had to be here, somewhere. Inuyasha took off again. His thoughts drifted with the snow. Inuyasha plummeted into a shallow icy streamlet, his curses smoked in the air. He staggered onto numb feet and stood still. Desperation gripped him. His mind grasped one imperative: save Kagome and Shippou. He closed his useless eyes and concentrated on detecting the scent of a cabin, long abandoned by its human owners. Sweat froze on his eye lashes. There he caught the faded rank smell of humanity, left long years before. A deep breath and a jump saw him airborne again.

The hovel sat under straggly trees. The building looked like kindling but the walls and roof remained intact with the door swaying in the wind. Inuyasha stumbled gasping into the cabin and crashed to the floor. The walls cut the wind but the lone room was icy. Inuyasha raised himself on shaking arms and sat up. The room whirled. He snapped his eyes shut, fighting to untie Kagome with numb fingers. Cussing, he finally used his claws and slashed the rope. Kagome sagged to the floor, unconscious; followed by her backpack and the frozen kitsune child. The door flew opened. InuYasha flung himself forward, slamming the door shut.

Inuyasha gazed around the room. There was nothing, just an empty long-abandoned home with the debris of seasons littering the floor. Survival instinct consumed the dog-demon. He tore apart Kagome's precious backpack tossing out food, spare clothes, books, a teapot, cups, and dishes. A blanket spilled out. His eyes closed with relief. They might survive. Swiftly, he peeled away soaked outer clothing from Kagome and Shippou and made a mat of miko's spare clothes, laid the girl and child together on it under the blanket and his red outer robe.

Inuyasha slipped outside to gather wood for a life giving fire; snow covered everything. The hanyou ended by using his claws on a tree to get enough wood, leaving him with his sweat soaked tunic frozen to his body. By the time, he staggered in with his last load, he was shaking too hard to stay on his feet. Inuyasha crawled to the fire pit in the center of the room and laid the fire; a mumbled spell created a spark, gathered from his own dwindling demonic strength.

The door crashed open again. Growling with a frustration that came close to warming him, he thrust the door closed. The wind pushed back. Finally, Inuyasha settled the matter by sitting on the floor, holding the door closed with his body.

Kagome woke to the rattle of the wind. Her nose was cold but the rest of her was warm. Her hands moved; a small hot body hugged her, she touched the sleeping Shippou. Kagome smiled. The memory of intense cold returned. Inuyasha. Kagome's eyes opened and wandered the dark room until they fell on a figure sitting up against the door, head bent forward with white hair concealing his face, appearing to be asleep. Kagome started to leave her warm nest, but the extreme cold stopped her. InuYasha raised his head, "No. Don't leave the blankets. It's too cold. I just started the fire."

Kagome gave a sweet smile that sent a thrill through Inuyasha and settled down with the slumbering cub while the crackling fire warmed the interior of the cabin. Strangely, Inuyasha still sat vigil in front of the door, wearing only his tunic and pants. His coat covered her. "Inuyasha?" she called.

Her voice made his drooping head jerk up. His gold eyes glowed in the dim light. "Why don't you sit near the fire?" Kagome asked.

"Can't," he rasped," the door is broken. The wind blows it open. Someone needs to keep it closed."

"You must be freezing!" Kagome returned.

She took a few steps away from her warm bed. Inuyasha snapped, "Don't bother. I'm fine. I'm a demon, remember!"

Kagome sighed. She felt too sick for a fight. Shippou wailed from the blankets, "K-a-g-o-m-e"

Kagome swooped down on the one person in the hut that welcomed her help. Shippou clung to her, all small boy in need of comfort, while the other boy kept up his lonely shivering watch.

The day passed in increasing discomfort for all of them. Shippou and Kagome nursed terrible colds; the room rang with their sneezing and coughing. Kagome swore that she heard it from Inuyasha's spot too. "Inuyasha are you sick?" she asked.

The hanyou raised his head with his usual pride, "Demons don't get sick!" he answered icily, "It's your damned imagination."

Throughout the night, she heard her own coughing echoed from Inuyasha's self-appointed post. She left her bed only to fix small amounts of tea and ramen, Inuyasha refused to eat.

The wind picked up as the blizzard resumed. Kagome and kitsune kit snuggled together; the care she would have lavished on Inuyasha, Kagome gave to the affectionate Shippou, so like her little brother. Inuyasha bristled whenever she went near him, but the looks she got of him told her that he suffered too. Damning the hanyou's prickly pride, Kagome decided to break his stubbornness for his own good. The miko walked deliberately into the dog demon's chosen space. He stood up abruptly, leaning against the door "Kagome…don't…"

When she took another step, he spun, flung opened the door and darted outside. Kagome stood behind the door, tears shining in her eyes, as she listened to Inuyasha's harsh coughing as the cold air hit his lungs. She went back to bed. Fighting like this would destroy them both. She woke when Inuyasha snuck back in. He dropped more wood in the small pile of kindling then retired to the door, which was poorly blocked with her backpack.

A violent crash and a bath of snow, ice and wood flung the small group out of sleep. Shedding the wooden shingles from the collapsed roof, Inuyasha damned every deity he knew of. He gathered his shivering charges and their precious supplies together. "Girl, can you hang on?" the young half demon demanded in his most irritatingly imperious tone.

An exhausted Kagome exploded, "Sit!" she screamed.

Inuyasha mashed his face in the snow. Before he could sit up, the miko swooped in, grabbed one icy clawed hand and slapped the other to an angry hanyou's forehead. The heat of fever answered her. "I knew it!" she crowed "You liar! You are sick!"

Stiff with humiliation, Inuyasha yelled "Youkai don't get sick!"

Shippou chimed in, "I'm a youkai and I'm sick."

Inuyasha sniffed disdainfully, "You're a kid."

Fighting in the snow gained nothing but frostbite, so Kagome ended the argument by climbing onto Inuyasha's back with Shippou clinging to her. "Can we can make it to Kaede's?" she asked.

Inuyasha answered grimly, "We don't have any choice."

If Kagome possessed any doubts about Inuyasha's condition, the trip home cancelled them as his leaps and runs grew short and breathless, punctuated by a cough that he was powerless to conceal. Inuyasha chose to pretend that he was fine, it was only way he could put one foot in front of the other. He recited in his mind, "Demons did not get sick…. Demons did not get sick…He was a demon…. He was a demon…"

He reached Kaede's village just after nightfall. His charges resting unconscious against his aching shoulders, he staggered into Kaede's hut. Bright glazed eyes stared blankly as Kaede scolded him for thoughtlessness while, the old miko efficiently bundled Shippou and Kagome into warm beds with assistance from Sango and Miroku. Kaede continued her non-stop dressing down, "What possessed you to risk the storm. Kagome and young Shippou have not your strength."

The miko turned from her sleeping patients expecting a rude answer from the hanyou. She got it. Inuyasha lay face down on the floor where he had silently collapsed. Muttering about wayward young half-demons, Kaede bent over the unconscious half-youkai. She raised her voice, "Sango, Miroku, I need your help."

With Miroku's assistance, she laid out Inuyasha on a futon and covered him with the quilt Sango handed to her. The hanyou's face matched his hair in pallor except for a distinctive fever flush across his cheeks; dark shadows hollowed the closed golden eyes. His body began to shake in a paroxysm of violent coughing, "Sit him up", ordered Kaede, stuffing a rolled mat under the young half-demon.

Inuyasha's breathing eased. Kaede, Sango and Miroku watched over the invalids. Shippou and Kagome returned to the waking world after several hours of sleep and warmth. Their fevers broke as Inuyasha's rose. Kagome, in spite of Kaede's disapproval wrapped up in a blanket and weakly crossed the wooden floor, to sit beside the sick boy. Kagome took her shaking hand and smacked Inuyasha's flushed burning cheek. "You idiot!" she cried.

She took the hanyou's shoulders and shook him hard as tears leaked and dripped, "Why didn't you sit by the fire! You didn't even eat did you! No, the great demon has to prove how tough he is! Now, look at you!"

Inuyasha half opened his eyes, husked "Kagome…"

His lids closed and his head lolled. Kagome dissolved in tears. Kaede gathered the exhausted girl in her warm arms and Kagome spoke as their story came out in jerks between sobs and gasps. First, the unsuccessful pursuit of shards into the mountains plagued with exhaustion and illness until even young Shippou fell sick. A surly dog-demon, wanting to continue the chase finally gave in to reality when all his companions sat shivering with fever and too weak to continue. The decision was made to return to the village; Sango, Miroku flew home on Kirara while Shippou and Kagome went with the hanyou. The second half of the story where Inuyasha attempted to out run the storm, protecting his charges as best he could, was only told in part because Kagome was unconscious through much of it. Kaede gave a tired smile, "We will just have to hear the rest from Inuyasha."

"Stupid! Stupid! What he is, is STUPID!" Kagome's voice rose to a shriek.

Kaede took the girl's hands in hers, "I think that Inuyasha has had a change of heart."

Kagome looked at the old priestess, distress and sheer incomprehension in her eyes.

"Listen dear our half-demon could have left you and Shippou to fend for yourselves. Instead, he chose to protect you at the risk of his well being. He made this choice out of care for you and Shippou. I don't believe Inuyasha will become a full demon now. His mind probably doesn't know of his change but his heart does. Do not tell him this." warned Kaede.

The four companions shared Kaede's vigil over Inuyasha, as his illness approached crisis. His fever rose to an alarming level. At times the only sounds in the cabin were the crackle of the fire and the dog demon's labored breathing. After 2 days, an exhausted Kagome turned bloodshot eyes on Kaede, "Will he live through this?"

A calm Kaede nodded her head, "He will. After all, he is a half-demon. If you or even young Shippou had come down with this lung fever, I don't know if I could have saved you. Inuyasha's strength, his demon blood and sheer stubbornness will see him through but he is very ill and will need time to heal. He was not wrong in his decision. He is the only one who could survive the storm even if he could not come out unscathed. Come on and help me prepare this herbal tea. You need…"

Kagome allowed Kaede to distract her, after all the tea was for Inuyasha. When the steaming cup arrived at the patient's side, he suddenly roused enough to fight. He stubbornly refused to drink. Sweat sheening his skin, his amber eyes glinted half covered by heavy bruised lids, Inuyasha flailed, rolled his head and kept his mouth shut. Kaede stopped when a merciless coughing fit made the hanyou curl up. Kaede called a strategy session. Carefully watching the now quiet sick dog demon, she nodded to Kagome, who yelled, "Sit!"

Inuyasha stiffened, paralyzed for the moment. Sango, Miroku and Kaede swept down on the incapacitated boy. A fight ensued before they pinned his limbs and some of the tea found its way into the uncooperative teen. His nurses stood gasping from exertion. Inuyasha moaned with pain then began gasping and coughing and his pallor tinged blue. Kagome looked fearfully at Kaede, "Wha…What's happening?"

Kaede replied, "I don't know. This tea was supposed to ease his breathing. It does in humans. I…I may have made a mistake not all herbs that help humans, aid demons. We know so little about demons. We are taught that demon's don't become ill. Well, that's false. Demons carry poisons that kill humans or even one of their own kind. Demons do have their own weakness, that's why Inuyasha is so sensitive. Obviously, demons can get sick. Certain herbs used by exterminators like Sango here to destroy demons are harmless to humans but kill demons. I just hope I haven't poisoned our hanyou."

Inuyasha's own body solved the problem, Kaede never taking her eyes from the demon boy, snatched up a basin. She held Inuyasha as he threw up violently. The hanyou passed out. Kaede settled for the tea's she knew Inuyasha could safely take even if they might not be as effective. Inuyasha began to shake, his luminous eyes glowed in the dark, "Mother." he whispered, tears sliding down his cheeks.

Kaede took the wandering clawed fingers in her own knotted hands. "Inuyasha. Hear me. You are home. This is Kaede. I am calling you back. Awaken Inuyasha, return to us."

Inuyasha slumped flat on the futon. For a moment it seemed like he wasn't breathing, then coughing broke the silence. His eyes opened, recognition lighting them, "Kaede….is Kagome…?"

"Kagome is beside you, sleeping" Kaede said as she gently stroked silver hair from a sweaty forehead.

The vicious fever had broken. Kaede allowed herself a small smile at the teen, "Sleep" she said.

Inuyasha slept for a full day before rousing at sunset while his friends gathered for their evening meal. Kagome knew the moment he opened his eyes. "Damnation! What am I doing here?" demanded a crabby convalescent hanyou.

Awake only a few minutes, he managed only a cracked whisper, weakness prevented his usual top-of-the-lungs yell. The crowd of friends towering over him irritated him further. "What the hell do you think you are staring at?"

Inuyasha's eyes gleamed with anger. Kagome silenced him with a hug. "I'm glad you are feeling better. We were so worried because you were so sick. "

Inuyasha turned his head and said as arrogantly as he could from flat on his back, "Keh, demons don't get sick."

Shippou chimed in, "Demons do so get sick. I was sick. Kagome said that I probably made you sick too from something called germs."

Kagome tried to silence the youngster. Anger gave Inuyasha the strength to struggle to sit up. "You made me SICK! You little….!"

Kagome said, "Calm down Inuyasha. You probably caught Shippou's cold. You know kid's pick up everything."

Shippou hid behind Kagome, sticking his tongue out at the half-demon. Inuyasha threatened weakly, "Just you wait Shippou! I'm going to get you!"

Late the next day, the teen prowled his cage, a sutra border around his bed. Still weak but too restless to stay still for long, Inuyasha dropped exhausted on his futon glaring at Shippou who sat just outside the paper lined limits of the hanyou's confinement. Shippou laughed, "Hahahaha! I got you Inuyasha! I got you!"

Inuyasha fumed, "Just you wait you little rotten…!"

Kaede turned to Kagome, "Everything is back to normal."

Kagome just smiled, joy in her heart. Inuyasha chose her.


End file.
